A commuter plane, Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J., coming in for a landing nose-dived into a house in suburban Buffalo, sparking a fiery explosion that killed all 49 people aboard and a person in the home. It was the nation's first fatal crash of a commercial airliner in 2 1/2 years. Historian Alison Des Forges (66), prominent human rights advocate who documented genocide in Rwanda, was among the victims of the crash.
Links: USA, Air Crash, Rwanda, New York, New Jersey

2009 Feb 25

Rwandan troops began pulling out of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after a controversial joint operation with Congolese troops against Rwandan Hutu rebels.
Links: Rwanda, CongoDRC

2009 Feb 27

A UN tribunal in Tanzania convicted a former Rwandan military chaplain of attempted rape and genocide for crimes that included killing people who had sought refuge in a seminary. The three-judge panel sentenced Emmanuel Rukundo (50) to 25 years in prison. Rukundo will only serve 17 and half years because the judges gave him credit for the seven and a half years he has already spent in detention.
Links: Tanzania, Rwanda, Genocide

2009 Mar 23

In the Netherlands Joseph Mpambara (40), a Hutu man, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for the slaying of two Tutsi mothers and at least four of their children during Rwanda's 1994 genocide. The Hague District Court acquitted Mpambara of involvement in the massacre of hundreds of other Tutsis who had sought shelter in a church. He was also acquitted of raping four women and killing one of them in a separate incident.
Links: Netherlands, Rwanda, Genocide

2009 Apr 5

Rwanda's ambassador said the bodies of nearly 11,000 Rwandan genocide victims that floated more than 100 miles downriver and were placed in makeshift graves in Uganda will receive proper reburial.
Links: Rwanda, Genocide

UN special investigator Philip Alston said on October 15 that Congolese soldiers had killed 50 Rwandan Hutu refugees and abducted and raped around 40 women during an April attack on a refugee camp in eastern DR Congo.
Links: UN, Rwanda, CongoDRC

2009 May 22

A Canadian court found Desire Munyaneza (42), a Rwandan man, guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, making him the first person convicted under Canada's war crimes act. Munyaneza arrived in Canada in 1997 and unsuccessfully tried to claim refugee status. Police subsequently launched an investigation and arrested him in 2005. On Oct 29 Munyaneza was sentenced to 25 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.
Links: Canada, Rwanda, Genocide

2009 Jun 19

A top Congo army officer said 32 people have been killed in three days of fighting in eastern Congo between government soldiers and Rwandan Hutu rebels backed by Congolese militia allies.
Links: Rwanda, CongoDRC

2009 Jun 22

In Tanzania a UN court, trying alleged masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide, sentenced former interior minister Callixte Kalimanzira (56) to 30 years in prison for tricking thousands of people to hide on a hill, only to watch them get slaughtered by militias.
Links: UN, Tanzania, Rwanda

2009 Jun 26

In Rwanda Aloys Nsekarije, former Rwandan foreign minister and business tycoon, was acquitted by a court over involvement in the country's 1994 genocide.
Links: Rwanda

Switzerland said it had refused a request to extradite a Rwandan national wanted in his own country for alleged genocide and war crimes. Other European countries have also refused extradition requests arguing that suspects cannot at present receive a fair trial in the country.
Links: Switzerland, Rwanda

2009 Jul 9

The UN passed a resolution extending the lifetime of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to next year. The latest extension is the second for the Tanzania-based court which had originally been scheduled wind up its lower court cases by December 2008, but had its life extended to December 2009.
Links: UN, Tanzania, Rwanda

2009 Jul 9

The Swedish government said it will expel Sylvere Ahorugeze (53) within three weeks, fulfilling a request from authorities in Rwanda and marking the first time an EU nation has sent back a suspect to face charges in the 1994 genocide.
Links: Rwanda, Sweden, Genocide

2009 Jul 14

In Tanzania Tharcisse Renzaho, the former prefect of Rwandan capital Kigali, was sentenced to life for genocide-related crimes by the UN-backed war crimes court trying masterminds of the country's 1994 massacre.
Links: Tanzania, Rwanda

2009 Aug 6

DR Congo President Joseph Kabila met his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame in the lakeside city of Goma for the first official bilateral talks between the neighboring states in 13 years.
Links: Rwanda, CongoDRC

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo arrested Gregoire Ndahimana, a former Rwandan mayor, for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide. Measures were taken for him to be transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
Links: Rwanda, CongoDRC

2009 Aug 12

World Bank President Robert Zoellick pledged to boost development aid to Rwanda to help the rebuild the country ripped apart by genocide.
Links: Rwanda, World Bank

2009 Aug 27

In Sudan Martin Luther Agwai, the outgoing military commander of the joint UN-African Union (UNAMID) peacekeeping force in the western Sudan region, said there is no more war in Darfur. Agwai defended his soldiers against persistent criticism of their effectiveness, insisting they have ended the massacres that long plagued the Sudanese region. The Nigerian officer will be replaced next week by Rwandan Patrick Nyamvumba.
Links: UN, Rwanda, Sudan, Nigeria, AU

2009 Sep 3

Rwanda's state radio reported that Alfred Mukezamfura, former speaker of parliament, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for inciting hatred during the 1994 genocide in which some 800,000 people died. Mukezamfura fled the country in March to Belgium where he has sought asylum.
Links: Rwanda

2009 Sep 26

In Rwanda at least four people were killed and 52 injured when an unidentified man lobbed a grenade into a crowd at a village market. Police suspect it was an act of sabotage to sow terror in rural districts.
Links: Rwanda

TimelinesA text-based site.

2009 Oct 5

Police in Uganda arrested Idelphonse Nizeyimana, one of the most wanted suspects from Rwanda's 1994 genocide. The former army captain and senior intelligence officer and others prepared lists of Tutsi intellectuals and those in authority before handing the lists to troops and militia who then killed them.
Links: Rwanda, Uganda, Genocide

2009 Oct 13

A report by a coalition of 84 organizations said more than 1,000 civilians have been killed and nearly 900,000 displaced in eastern Congo by Rwandan Hutu militiamen and Congolese forces since January.
Links: Rwanda, CongoDRC

2009 Oct 24

In Rwanda 10 people were locked up in an underground passage which was blocked by a big amount of (fallen) residue in Nyakabingo. 7 were rescued by local people who dug another quick entrance. 3 remained inside. A week earlier, 3 other miners were crushed to death in a cassiterite and coltan mine in Rutongo, northern Rwanda.
Links: Rwanda, Labor

2009 Oct 28

In Rwanda Dismas Mukeshabatware, a member of Radio Rwanda's renowned Indamutsa theatre troupe, was sentenced on charges of murdering a woman and her three children in 1994 in the southern town of Butare. On Dec 16 he was acquitted on appeal.
Links: Rwanda

2009 Nov 3

Rwanda said it has urged the UN to list the Rwandan Hutu rebel group operating in eastern Congo as a terrorist organization.
Links: UN, Rwanda, CongoDRC

In Rwanda a passenger plane with a recent history of technical problems crashed into an airport VIP lounge Kigali, killing one passenger. The CRJ-100 aircraft was leased from Kenya's Jetlink.
Links: Air Crash, Rwanda

2009 Nov 17

Two leading Rwandan Hutu rebels were arrested in Germany on suspicion of crimes against humanity and war crimes this year and in 2008 in DR Congo. The pair, Ignace Murwanashyaka (46) and Straton Musoni (48) are the leader and deputy leader respectively of the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda. The FDLR is estimated to have 5,000 to 6,000 fighters, many of whom took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda before crossing into the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
Links: Germany, Rwanda, CongoDRC, Genocide

2009 Nov 17

A judge in Tanzania said the prosecution failed to prove its case against Father Hormisdas Nsengimana (55). He was alleged to have been at the center of a group of Hutu extremists that planned and carried out targeted attacks in Nyanza in 1994. Nsengimana was head of College Christ-Roi, a prestigious Catholic school in the southern Rwandan town. Judge Eric Mose ordered his immediate release from the UN detention facility in Arusha. He had been imprisoned for seven years since his 2002 arrest in Cameroon.
Links: Tanzania, Rwanda, Genocide

2009 Nov 20

In Tanzania members of the East Africa Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda) signed a common market agreement in Arusha, headquarters of the EAC.
Links: Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda

2009 Nov 25

A United Nations report confirmed that one of Africa's most brutal rebel movements relies on a vast, international network of supporters in at least 25 countries including in the US and Europe who facilitate arms trafficking, money transfers and day-to-day operational support. The findings are a scathing indictment of how little has been done by the international community to cut off logistical support to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic Hutu militia which has wreaked havoc in Congo.
Links: UN, Rwanda, CongoDRC

In Rwanda Janvier Murenzi, a former presidential financial director, was fined 1.8 million dollars and jailed for four years for illegal enrichment as Kigali cracks down on corruption.
Links: Rwanda, Corruption

2009 Nov 29

France and Rwanda agreed to restore diplomatic ties three years after they were cut off amid tensions over a French judicial investigation.
Links: France, Rwanda

Interpol and the Kenya Wildlife Service said African authorities over the last 3 months had raided shops, intercepted vehicles at checkpoints and used sniffer dogs to detect and seize over 3,800 pounds (1,768kg) of illegal elephant ivory in a six-nation operation. This involved the wildlife authorities, police and customs departments of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Links: Burundi, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Animal

2009 Dec 1

Ephraim Nkezabera (57), a former Rwandan bank director, was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Belgian court which found him guilty of war crimes including murder, attempted murder and rape during the 1994 genocide. Nkezabera was not present in court and did not attend the trial, which started just over three weeks ago, because of ill health. He was arrested in June 2004 by the Belgian authorities while visiting a family member in Belgium.
Links: Belgium, Rwanda

In Sudan gunmen killed three Rwandan soldiers in an ambush in the northern town of Saraf Umra in the western Darfur region.
Links: Rwanda, Sudan

2009 Dec 5

In Sudan's Darfur region 2 Rwandan peacekeepers were shot dead and one wounded, in the second deadly attack on their contingent in 24 hours. The next day a former Darfur rebel group captured 3 gunmen who allegedly killed the 5 Rwandan peacekeepers.
Links: Rwanda, Sudan

2009 Dec 12

Rwanda held elections. President Paul Kagame was reelected with a crushing majority to head the Rwandan Patriotic Front party that has been in power since 1994.
Links: Rwanda

2009 Dec 14

In Rwanda Valerie Bemeriki, a former journalist, was sentenced to life in prison for her role in inciting genocide, in the latest of a series of trials for the 1994 slaughter.
Links: Rwanda

2009

Gerard Prunier authored “Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe.”
Links: Rwanda, CongoDRC, Books

TimelinesA text-based site.

2009

In Canada Jacques Mungwarere was arrested in Windsor, Ontario, and accused of participating in the 1994 massacre of Tutsis in Rwanda. In 2013 he was acquitted of charges.
Links: Canada, Rwanda

2010 Jan 7

Rwanda and France pledged to improve ties after a lengthy freeze in diplomatic relations triggered by a French judge issuing arrest warrants for top aides to President Paul Kagame.
Links: France, Rwanda

2010 Jan 22

In Rwanda the latest feature film on the 1994 Rwanda genocide premiered in Kigali. Belgian director Philippe Van Leeuw shot "Le jour ou Dieu est parti en voyage" (The Day God Stayed Away) over two months -- June to August 2008 -- partly in Kigali, partly in the southwestern province of Cyangugu. It shows in excruciating detail what day-to-day life must have been like for those who survived beyond the first days of the killing.
Links: Belgium, Rwanda, Film

2010 Feb 6

In Rwanda Joseph Ntawangundi, an aide to the leader of the Unified Democratic Party (FDU), was arrested on a 2007 arrest warrant. He had been convicted in absentia for genocide by one of the grassroots courts known as gacaca in eastern Ngoma province. The FDU protested that Ntawangundi, sentence to 19 years in prison, was not in the country during the 1994 genocide that left some 800,000 dead. In March he sentenced to 17 years in prison for genocide in a retrial by a local court.

In Tanzania a UN tribunal found former Rwandan Lt. Col. Tharcisse Muvunyi guilty of exhorting a crowd to kill Tutsis and destroy their homes during the 1994 genocide that ripped through the Central African nation. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Links: UN, Tanzania, Rwanda

Congo’s Radio Okapi, a UN-run station, said Rwandan Hutu rebels have killed at least 27 people in eastern Congo already this month.
Links: Rwanda, CongoDRC

2010 Feb 18

Rwanda state radio said a Seventh Day Adventist pastor, Peday Ntihanabayo, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide by a grass-roots gacaca appeals court.
Links: Rwanda

In Rwanda French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy visited with pres. Paul Kagame too cement improved diplomatic relations following years of acrimony, recriminations and diplomatic standoffs over events surrounding the 1994 genocide. He said France made serious errors of judgment over the genocide, and those responsible for the killings should be found and punished, including any who might be residing in France.
Links: France, Rwanda

2010 Feb 25

In Arusha, Tanzania, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), found lieutenant colonel Ephrem Setako (60) guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and murder. "The Chamber found that Setako ordered the killings on 25 April 1994 of 30 to 40 Tutsis at Mukamira military camp in Ruhengeri prefecture and around 10 other Tutsis there on 11 May 1994."
Links: Tanzania, Rwanda

2010 Feb 28

A UN-backed military operation against Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was launched. The operation will involve 18 battalions from the Congolese FARDC army in a series of targeted attacks throughout north and south Kivu provinces in Congo's conflict-racked east.
Links: UN, Rwanda, CongoDRC

2010 Mar 2

French authorities arrested Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of the former Rwandan president killed in a plane crash, on a Rwandan warrant issued on genocide-related charges. She was soon freed on bail. The crash is widely considered the event that sparked the east African country's 1994 genocide. In 2004 France rejected her request for political asylum, alleging she was at the heart of the regime responsible for the genocide.
Links: France, Rwanda

2010 Mar 4

In Rwanda 2 grenade blasts wounded 16 people in the capital, in the second wave of grenade attacks to hit Kigali in two weeks. On March 6 authorities said Deo Mushayidi, a former member of the then rebel group Rwandan Patriotic Front that ended the 1994 genocide, was arrested in neighboring Burundi. The government has also accused two former senior army officers now exiled in South Africa of being behind the attacks.
Links: Burundi, Rwanda

A UN official said 90 Rwandan rebels have been killed in eastern Congo during a two-week Congolese army operation conducted with the support of UN peacekeepers.
Links: UN, Rwanda, CongoDRC

2010 Mar 10

Rwanda told Carina Tertsakian, a Human Rights Watch researcher, that her work permit had been revoked. On April 23, she was given 24 hours to leave the country.
Links: Rwanda

2010 Mar 17

The Congolese army said more than 600 Rwandan Hutu rebels have been killed or captured since January in an operation backed by the UN mission to the country.
Links: Rwanda, CongoDRC

2010 Apr 20

Rwanda’s army announced that 2 senior generals have been arrested over accusations of corruption and misconduct.
Links: Rwanda, Corruption

2010 Apr 21

Rwandan opposition leader and presidential hopeful Victoire Ingabire was arrested on charges of denying the 1994 genocide and "collaborating with a terrorist organization." Ingabire was handed conditional freedom the next day, but was barred from travelling out of the capital city, Kigali.
Links: Rwanda